The citizen and the environment. (Environment and Development: A Global Commitment)

The scientific community today produces a flow of reports, hypotheses and observations which show that our constant assaults on the environment are jeopardizing the world's potential for development. It is even said that the survival of the human race is threatened. Faced with these planetary problems, it is hard for the ordinary citizen not to feel in the presence of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

We are starting to feel the effects of the by-products of the very same technologies that have enabled us to increase our lifespan and improve our quality of life. Both the causes and the victims of environmental degradation, we are learning with amazement that we live in an increasingly complex and fragile world.

The transformations we have imposed on the biosphere are so far-reaching that immediate action must be taken to prevent their catastrophic effects from posing insoluble problems for the next generation. What can ordinary people do in the course of their daily lives to help solve these problems instead of making matters worse?

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT?

Many environmental problems are becoming increasingly global in scale, transcending frontiers and national jurisdictions and eluding the responsibility of individuals and nations.

Today's technologies are far more advanced than those of a few decades ago, but we are getting dangerously close to the limits of technological efficiency. Greater and greater efforts are required to make relatively insignificant progress, both in the production of goods and in the fight against pollution.